China, Estonia, Port, Transport

To find a new operator for the container terminal, Port of Tallinn organized a tender that was won by Muuga CT ahead of Russian bidder Rail Grant.

Erik Laidvee, Chairman of Transiidikeskuse AS which owns Muuga CT, says that they already have a container terminal in Muuga and have been hoping to expand on the same property that Port of Tallinn wanted to develop to attract Chinese transit trade businesses.

"The infrastructure that we have developed in Muuga enables to serve the whole container terminal, while a new investor would have to additionally invest about a billion kroons to reach a similar capacity," explained Laidvee.

Muuga CT is at present negotiating with a large Russian transport company to start shipping goods through the terminal.

"It would be a transport route between Hamburg and Tokyo with full containers moving in both directions," said Laidvee.

Informed unnamed sources claim that this Russian transport giant that Muuga CT hopes to attract is FESCO.

As reported, currently Transiidikeskus and Russian firm Rail Grant are competing for the housing rights of the Muuga terminal extension, which initially was meant for the Chinese.